Jordan is Jordan. Saudi is Saudi and Palestine is Palestine. Unfortunately Gadaffis dream of a United Arabia is at the moment a pipe dream,but may be realised within the next thousand years, whenthe Arabs learn to stop fighting themselves. They are their own worst enemies.

mehdi, great article well done and as for those who claim that 'if hamas wanted peace there would be peace' lol u seem to be forgetting the tiny issue that israel has a mind of its own. It attacks when it wants and there are no laws governing it. The state of israel breaks UN resolutions time and time again yet people are quick to jump to its defence. Those same people are the same ones that are quick to play the holocaust card. Open ur eyes and wake up. The turkish flotilla had nothing to do with hamas or Iran and yet innocents were murdered at the hands of this illegal nation. The British citizens whose passports were used in the murder of Hamas members in Dubai had nothing to do with Iran yet you will most likely defend Israel again. It is not Mehdi that is biased it is you with ur anti- 'anything that is muslim' vision that is bias and will not even allow you to admit that there are mass murders taking place on a daily basis in Gaza. Mehdi keep up the good work. God bless.

Give it a rest Mehdi.

Innocents mudered on the Jihad Flotilla....ROFL!!

By any objective measure, Islam the "Religion of Peace" has been the harshest, bloodiest religion the world has ever known.

Worse. Gaza has become a concentration camp.
But Hamas must hold elections pretty soon and renew their mandate and the right to speak for the Gazans.

I think Mehdi has made the mistake of calling it a war - it was a premeditated crime, as anyone who reads Norman Finkelstein will know. Israel promised a ‘greater Shoah’ back in March 2008 & delivered & if anyone should be slightly annoyed to say the least (after the latest 20 F-35’s for a Settlement Freeze fiasco) with Israel it should be President Obama. They used the night of his election to end a cease-fire that had held for 6 months & used the rest of his inauguration period as a last ditch (until next time) attempt to remove Hamas from the map.

Oh, it’s all very nice that the New Statesman has given Gaza some coverage at this time but anyone who subscribes to Today in Palestine - The Headlines would be forgiven for thinking that Gaza/Palestine is just one big Action Alert. It’s hard enough reading about the plight of the 686 (according to Addameer) Gazans in Israeli jails but I think to myself, well, at least they’re not just target practice, for the time-being, unlike the Children of the Gravel, according to Defence of Children International (DCI) - Palestine, 8 young Gazans have been shot & wounded this last month of 2010 alone while trying to earn a living for their already beleaguered families - God help Gaza!

I think Mehdi has made the mistake of calling it a war - it was a premeditated crime, as anyone who reads Norman Finkelstein will know. Israel promised a ‘greater Shoah’ back in March 2008 & delivered & if anyone should be slightly annoyed to say the least (after the latest 20 F-35’s for a Settlement Freeze fiasco) with Israel it should be President Obama. They used the night of his election to end a cease-fire that had held for 6 months & used the final days of his inauguration period as a last ditch (until next time) attempt to remove Hamas from the picture.

Oh, it’s all very nice that the New Statesman has given Gaza some coverage at this time but anyone who subscribes to Today in Palestine - The Headlines would be forgiven for thinking that Gaza/Palestine is just one big Action Alert. It’s hard enough reading about the plight of the 686 (according to Addameer) Gazans in Israeli jails but I think to myself, well, at least they’re not just target practice, for the time-being, like the Children of the Gravel, according to Defence of Children International (DCI) - Palestine, 8 young Gazans have been shot & wounded this last month of 2010 alone while trying to earn a living for their already beleaguered families -

God help Gaza!

"Let us acknowledge that the "US/UK special relationship" is a myth"

We do have a special relationship, however it's with Israel. The only place I ever hear about a special US/UK relationship is in the UK. Where are ya'al getting this nonsense from? We let you hang onto our coattails hoping for a little glory on the world stage. In exchange we get some political cover. If you figure that's "special" it's ok with me. Your army was kicked out of Basra and you were removed out our way in Helmand Province. And if this ever makes it passed the thought police I will continue to enlighten ya'al on your foolish ideas about your place in the world.

@Julian - What planet are you on!? Hamas are willing to a truce with Israel, as per their recent press news... I am pretty tired of hearing Zionist supporters echo "Hamas" as a reason for Israel blockade on Gaza..you say Hamas want to "eradicate" Israel...actions speak louder than words sonny boy..Its Israel that want to eradicate Palestinians and have made no secret of it either..!
WAKE UP!

Surely when Mehdi says that Amira Hass is 'a journalistic hero' of his he means that no Arab journalist has the cojones to report about the massacres committed daily in the name of Islam against Christians worldwide.

Gideon Polya: Are you going to respond to what someone on the Caroline Lucas thread has discovered about you, that you are a 9/11 conspiracist who believes that the US and Israel are behind the attack?

The stench of hypocrisy and the lies e.g. 'Gaza is a concentraion camp' from people who of course know better, but any opportunity to diminish the crimes of the Nazis against the Jews. The Mufti-who supported Hitler's extermination of the Jews-would approve.

Well said, Mehdi Hasan.

One must remember that there are 800,000 children among the 1.5 million Palestinians violently and abusively imprisoned in the "Gaza Concentration Camp" (Catholic Church) or "Gaza Prison" (UK PM David Cameron, Professor Noam Chomsky et al). Indeed 3/4 of the Gaza inmates are women or children

While other countries have had high avoidable death rate concentration camps that imprisoned women and children e.g. the British (Boer War, Kenya Emergency, much of the British Empire) and the Germans (Nazi-occupied Europe), the Gaza Concentration Camp is the only one to be policed by naval, airforce and tank bombardment.

While Mehdi Hasan's reference to racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel as "the Jewish state" is accurate (80% of Israelis would call themselves "Jews") one must note that many decent Jews dissociate themselves from the ongoing Palestinian Genocide and numerous, outstanding, anti-racist, humanitarian Jewish scholars and writers condemn racist Zionism (for a compendium of such views see "Jews Against Racist Zionism": https://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/ ).

Indeed outstanding Occupied Palestinian intellectual Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh has an Honor List of those standing up against racist Zionism and this List includes many decent Jewish and non-Jewish writers: http://qumsiyeh.org/honorlist/.

Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh was recently again arrested by the Zionist Occupiers (see: http://australiansforpalestine.com/34824 ).

Decent people around the world must impose Sanctions and Boycotts against Apartheid Israel and all countries, corporations, people and politicians supporting the Israeli Palestinian Genocide until not just Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh and the 800,000 children in the Gaza Concentration Camp but indeed all 12 million Palestinians are free to live in freedom and peace in a free, non-Apartheid Palestine (see the new, multi-author book "The Plight of the Palestinians": http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ) .